The Societas Meteorologica Palatina: An Eighteenth‐century Meteorological Society

Kington, John

doi:10.1002/j.1477-8696.1974.tb04330.x

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Although a prominent early attempt to establish a real climatic measuring network -that of the 'Societas Meteorologica Palatina' (Anon., 1783; see also Kington (1974)) -had already ended in 1792, some of its 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 number of series Figure 1. Development of the network of precipitation gauges still recording and homogenizable in the GAR stations and general procedures (the standardization of instruments, regular observing hours, etc.)…”

Section: Historical Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new instrumental precipitation dataset for the greater alpine region for the period 1800-2002

et al. 2005

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The paper describes the development of a dataset of 192 monthly precipitation series covering the greater alpine region (GAR,(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). A few of the time series extend back to 1800. A description is provided of the sometimes laborious processes that were involved in this work: from locating the original sources of the data to homogenizing the records and eliminating as many of the outliers as possible. Locating the records required exhaustive searches of archives currently held in yearbooks and other sources of the states, countries and smaller regional authorities that existed at various times during the last 200 years. Homogeneity of each record was assessed by comparison with neighbouring series, although this becomes difficult when the density of stations reduces in the earliest years. An additional 47 series were used, but the density of the sites in Austria and Switzerland was reduced to maintain an even coverage in space across the whole of the GAR. We are confident of the series back to 1840, but the quality of data before this date must be considered poorer. Of all of the issues involved in homogenizing these data, perhaps the most serious problem is associated with the differences in the height above ground of the precipitation gauges, in particular the general lowering of gauge heights in the late 19th century for all countries, with the exception of Italy. The standard gauge height in the early-to-mid 19th century was 15-30 m above the ground, with gauges being generally sited on rooftops. Adjustments to some series of the order of 30-50% are necessary for compatibility with the near-ground location of gauges during much of the 20th century. Adjustments are sometimes larger in the winter, when catching snowfall presents serious problems. Data from mountain-top observatories have not been included in this compilation (because of the problem of measuring snowfall), so the highest gauge sites are at elevations of 1600-1900 m in high alpine valley locations. Two subsequent papers will analyse the dataset. The first will compare the series with other large-scale precipitation datasets for this region, and the second will describe the major modes of temporal variability of precipitation totals in different seasons and determine coherent regions of spatial variability.

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Section: Historical Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new instrumental precipitation dataset for the greater alpine region for the period 1800-2002

et al. 2005

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“…Widespread meteorological observations across much of Western and Central Europe began in the 1780s . Longer series have been developed at the monthly timescale for a number of locations extending back to the 17th century .…”

Section: Climate Response In Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic eruptions: Earth system effects

Raible

Brönnimann

Auchmann

et al. 2016

WIREs Climate Change

134

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The eruption of Tambora (Indonesia) in April 1815 had substantial effects on global climate and led to the ‘Year Without a Summer’ of 1816 in Europe and North America. Although a tragic event—tens of thousands of people lost their lives—the eruption also was an ‘experiment of nature’ from which science has learned until today. The aim of this study is to summarize our current understanding of the Tambora eruption and its effects on climate as expressed in early instrumental observations, climate proxies and geological evidence, climate reconstructions, and model simulations. Progress has been made with respect to our understanding of the eruption process and estimated amount of SO2 injected into the atmosphere, although large uncertainties still exist with respect to altitude and hemispheric distribution of Tambora aerosols. With respect to climate effects, the global and Northern Hemispheric cooling are well constrained by proxies whereas there is no strong signal in Southern Hemisphere proxies. Newly recovered early instrumental information for Western Europe and parts of North America, regions with particularly strong climate effects, allow Tambora's effect on the weather systems to be addressed. Climate models respond to prescribed Tambora-like forcing with a strengthening of the wintertime stratospheric polar vortex, global cooling and a slowdown of the water cycle, weakening of the summer monsoon circulations, a strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and a decrease of atmospheric CO2. Combining observations, climate proxies, and model simulations for the case of Tambora, a better understanding of climate processes has emerged.For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website

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“…The meaning of the symbols (see Table X) are deduced from contemporary legends. There is no legend in the Stockholm observation diaries for the first of the three periods, but the symbols are similar to those used by the Meteorological Society in Mannheim (see Kington (1974)). We used a legend found in an observation diary from Umeå, northern Sweden, in 1796 (see Moberg (1998)) for the first period.…”

Section: A1 Stockholmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were southern Swedish summer temperatures before 1860 as warm as measured?

Moberg

Alexandersson

Bergström

et al. 2003

Intl Journal of Climatology

102

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Temperature series from Stockholm and Uppsala in southern Sweden indicate that summers from the mid-18th century until around 1860 were, on average, warmer than the 1961-90 mean. The station histories suggest that the early observations could have been positively biased, for example because of insufficient radiation protection. We investigate if independent support for warm summers in the early period can be obtained from other climate variables. Using stepwise multiple regression analysis we investigate nine potential predictor variables: six air circulation indices, precipitation, air pressure and cloud amount. Three of these variables -cloud amount (the most important one), meridional geostrophic wind, and air pressure -together explain 65% of the June-August temperature variance in the calibration period 1873-2000. Application of the regression relationship back to 1780 shows that the model is equally successful in predicting year-toyear temperature variability before 1873 as it is in the calibration period, whereas the low-frequency component is poorly reconstructed in the early period. This reduced skill is primarily due to poorer data quality of the predictor variables in the early period, in particular the cloud amount series. The observed decadal mean temperatures during 1780-1860 are found to be above the upper limit of a 95% confidence interval that accounts for uncertainties both in the regression relationship and in the cloud amount series. We conclude that the observed temperatures before around 1860 are, therefore, most likely positively biased. The size of this bias cannot be accurately determined from the evidence used here, but seems to be about 0.7-0.8°C for both stations. A comparison with long instrumental temperature series from central Europe suggests a slightly smaller bias (0.5-0.6°C). For more accurate assessment of the Stockholm and Uppsala temperatures, we recommend that extensive homogeneity testing of other long northern European temperature series are undertaken.

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The Societas Meteorologica Palatina: An Eighteenth‐century Meteorological Society

Cited by 23 publications

References 3 publications

A new instrumental precipitation dataset for the greater alpine region for the period 1800-2002

A new instrumental precipitation dataset for the greater alpine region for the period 1800-2002

Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic eruptions: Earth system effects

Were southern Swedish summer temperatures before 1860 as warm as measured?

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